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Thursday, 18 February 2016

KING DEFYING SCHOOL HEADS FACE ARREST

School
principals in Swaziland will be arrested if they continue to defy
an order from King Mswati III, the kingdom’s absolute monarch, and charge
parents top-up fees for their
children’s education.

The
Swazi Education and Training Minister Phineas Magagula
made this promise on Monday (15 February 2016) after the Kingdom’s High Court
confirmed the King’s edict that no school should charge parents top-up fees.

The
Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported that Magagula said by charging top-up fees the principals
were ‘failing to comply with His Majesty King Mswati III’s order that such
should not be paid and that no child should be deprived of education’.

Schools have been in
disarray since February 2014 when the King pronounced on top-up fees in his
speech opening the Swaziland Parliament, even though the
government he hand-picked did not have a plan to deal with the financial
shortfall this would create.

In Swaziland the King’s word is a proclamation. Once
he speaks nobody is allowed to question him.

It is this mind-set that has sent schools across the
impoverished kingdom into chaos.

According to reports within Swaziland most schools
have been forced to suspend activities including participation in sports and
music competitions. It is estimated these extra-mural activities have halved
when compared to recent years.

The Swazi
Observerreported
some head teachers had resorted to selling sweets on behalf of their schools to
raise additional funds.

In 2015, the newspaper reported, ‘Swaziland Principals
Association (SWAPA) President Mduduzi Bhembe confirmed the sad situation and
lamented the fact that the growth of the country’s education system was taking
a nosedive.

‘He said as principals of schools they decried the
collapse of the education system and called for government to bring an
alternative to the scrapped top-up fees that were paid by parents to assist
boost the schools’ coffers.’

Government introduced free primary education in 2009,
starting from Grade One and in 2015 the programme was rolled out in Grade Seven,
which is the last grade at primary school level. More than 240,000 pupils are
enrolled in the primary education system. According to the 2012 annual
education census, 95 percent of appropriate age and eligible children are able
to access primary education.

Principals
complained that the money paid by
government was too meagre to run the schools and a majority of them opted for
top-up fees to make up for the shortage.

There are further problems ahead for Swazi schools as
the kingdom only has about half the number of secondary schools than primary
schools and existing secondary schools are not able to absorb all the expected
primary school leavers.